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Raleigh, N.C. — Latrail McCoy and Junius Chaney lifted the Shaw University Bears to their second straight victory as they knocked off Fayetteville State 74-65 in a game played on Wednesday night at Felton J. Capel Arena.

McCoy finished with a game-high 24 points off the bench, including a 14-of-14 performance from the free throw line, to lead the Bears to the victory. Chaney scored 12 big points, all of which came in the second half, to help Shaw pick up another critical Southern Division victory in the CIAA.

"They did what seniors were supposed to do," said Shaw head coach Cleo Hill, Jr. on the play of McCoy and Chaney. "Latrail is a very crafty player. He shot some three's early on that didn't go down, so he started attacking the basket. We had a hard time getting Junius to play aggressive in the first half, so some motivating words at halftime helped him get it together. He came out in the second half and really stepped it up."

The win improves the Bears to 14-10 overall, 9-6 in the CIAA and 3-6 in the Southern Division. After dropping six of seven, the Bears have now won two straight headed into the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon. The Broncos, meanwhile, fall to 8-16 overall, 3-12 in the CIAA and 0-9 in the Southern Division.

As a team, the Bears shot 47.7 percent from the floor on 21-of-44 shooting. The Bears were 27-of-33 from the charity stripe for an 81.8 percent rate. In contrast, the Broncos were 22-of-54 from the floor for 40.7 percent and they were 13-of-18 from the free throw line for 72.2 percent.

The Bears won the rebounding battle, snagging down 38 rebounds compared to just 24 for the Broncos. The Bears had 14 offensive rebounds while Fayetteville State pulled down 11.

"We certainly played better in some areas than we have recently," said Hill. "We shot the ball well from the free throw line and we controlled their offensive rebounds to some degree. Those were some of the things that we set out to do tonight." After FSU opened the game on a 9-5 run through the first four minutes of the contest, the Bears responded with a 13-5 spurt. Curtis Hines buried a three-pointer with 10:56 remaining in the period to give the Bears an 18-14 lead.

Paul Lane of FSU brought the Broncos within two with a layup at the 10:23 mark. Six seconds later, Shaw’s Andre Paulk pushed the Bears’ lead back to four with a layup, to make it 20-16.

The Broncos answered by going on a 5-0 run to put them up 21-20 at the 9:23 mark thanks to a three-pointer from Devin Thompson and a layup from Paul Lane.

For the next five minutes, the Bears went ice cold from the floor as they scored their next nine points from the free throw line. Fayetteville State took advantage of the cold shooting as the Broncos built a 34-31 lead with 4:58 remaining.

Shaw’s next field goal didn’t come until 3:56 remained on the clock when Keith Mitchell buried a three-pointer to tie the game at 34. After a missed opportunity from FSU, McCoy put the Bears up by two with a layup just 38 seconds later.

McCoy’s bucket was part of a late 9-0 run put together by the Bears, who built a 43-34 lead after Mitchell buried a pair of free throws with 42 ticks remaining in the period.

Seventeen seconds later, FSU’s Lenton Donnell drained a three-pointer to bring the Broncos within six. McCoy put the Bears back in front by eight after burying a jumper as time expired to give the Bears a 45-37 lead at the half.

Mohammed Abdur-Rahim buried two free throws at the 18:51 mark of the second half put the Bears up by 10 at 47-37.

FSU’s Anthony Shelton buried a three-pointer to bring the Broncos within seven at 47-40 with 18:39 remaining. Later on, Abdur-Rahim buried a jumper from the free throw line to give Shaw a 49-40 cushion.

After back-to-back buckets from FSU’s Travis Marcus and Tyrel Tate cut the Broncos’ deficit to five at 49-44, Chaney pushed Shaw’s lead back to seven after receiving a pass from Paulk underneath the bucket for the easy score.

Tate dunked the ball to bring the Broncos within five before Chaney buried a jumper to give the Bears a seven-point lead once again. Chaney’s bucket gave Shaw a 53-46 advantage with 12:42 remaining.

Both teams went scoreless for almost 1:30 before Paulk was fouled while converting a layup. He buried the free throw to give Shaw another 10-point lead (56-46) with 11:15 left in the game.

Chaney put Shaw up by 12 with 9:11 remaining after receiving a nice dish from McCoy under the basket for the uncontested layup. FSU cut it to 10 when Lane converted a layup just 16 seconds later.

McCoy buried a jumper to give Shaw a 60-48 lead with 8:21 remaining in the game. Twenty seconds later, the Broncos got back within single digits when Devin Thompson buried a three-pointer to make it a nine-point contest.

After two free throws from Tate cut the FSU deficit to seven, McCoy converted a layup to push Shaw’s lead back to nine at 62-53.

Thompson scored three points the old fashioned way after drawing the foul while making a layup. The three-point play cut Shaw’s lead to six with 5:32 left.

The Bears responded with a three-point play of their own as Chaney made a layup and sank a free throw to extend Shaw’s lead to nine once again at 65-56.

Chaney scored once more to give Shaw an 11-point margin at 67-56 with 3:59 remaining. Fourteen seconds later, Donnell buried a jumper to bring FSU back to within nine.

The Broncos rallied with a 5-0 run, capped off with a huge three-pointer from Juwan Addison, to pull within four at 67-63 with 2:16 left in the game.

At the 2:02 mark, Chaney went 1-of-2 at the charity stripe to push Shaw’s lead to five at 68-63.

The score remained the same until Thompson sank a jumper with 48.6 ticks left to bring the Broncos within three.

After McCoy successfully grabbed the inbounds pass, he was immediately fouled and buried a pair of free throws to give Shaw a 70-65 lead with 48.3 seconds left. FSU had an opportunity on the other end but Tate’s three-pointer rimmed out.

McCoy buried four more free throws in the final seconds to make it 74-65 as time expired.

Fayetteville State was led by Donnell with a team-high 16 points. Tate scored 13 while Thompson added 11. Lane contributed 10 in the loss.

The Bears will return to action on Saturday afternoon when they host Johnson C. Smith in the regular season finale. The game will begin at 3 p.m. and will be played at Southeast Raleigh High School.